Dear Diary…the work of merchants

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “The Village of Homlette”

After lunch, Ezekiel searched the dead bodies for weapons. There were some clubs and cross-bows, and a halberd, but nothing that looked extra special.

As we were preparing to head back into town, we heard scraping above the ceiling. We all took a look, but couldn’t see anything through the beams and debris poking through.

Some of us thought it might be the guy who got away, but that didn’t make any sense to me. I expect he’s long gone by now. All the same, I wasn’t anxious to have the ceiling collapse in on me, so I was glad when we finally got moving – Kobort and Raven carrying the chest, and Mikael “encouraging” the prisoners (who were tied around the arms and hobbled at the knees).

Once we reached Kobort’s horse at the entrance, we secured the chest to the saddle…awkwardly, but at least then Kobort and Raven didn’t have to haul it themselves.

We tied the prisoners to the sides of the chest, and made pretty good time down the track (especially now that the way had been cleared of underbrush and branches).

As we reached the outskirts of Homlette, we sent Raven running ahead to get the constable (because he’s so fast).

Well, he got back before too long…but said the constable didn’t seem interested in our prisoners. “What does this have to do with Homelette?”

So Ezekiel decided to try Master Rufus, the warrior in charge of the fortress-to-be.

We just happened to be passing the “gate-house” (there’s a foundation and a rough out-line, but nothing more at this point), so Ezekiel, Mikael and Raven made their way through the workmen and headed for the tower in the center – which is actually completed to the second story.

The rest of us guarded the horse and the prisoners. The horse seemed to be hanging in there just fine, but the captured bandits were understandably surly.

After a wait, the others returned – with some men-at-arms who took charge of the prisoners. So we’ve discharged our Lawful duties in that regard.

When we got back to the Welcome Wench, we took our loot up to Lydia’s room and looked it over. There was a pile of currency, but also a hefty amount of items that would need to be appraised.

Ezekiel offered Kobort the chance of cashing out his equal share now, or returning with us tomorrow morning to see what else the moat-house held.

Kobort decided he wanted his share now…which meant we had to get all the loot appraised…and do MATH!

Kobort and Lydia took the amethyst he found in the frog, and the citrene gem and gold chain off the brigand leader to the money-changer’s for appraisal.

Mikael and Raven took the two bolts of fine cloth, the matched set of crystal goblets and flagon, and the little jar of oil to the merchant.

I took the four beautiful arrows to the blacksmith.

Nori was set to guard the room.

And Ezekiel announced that he had some questions to ask Osler the innkeep, so we told him he could count all the little copper coins when he was done talking.

The blacksmith was very nice, and helped me look over the arrows. Given the care that went into making them, they’re probably magic – although we’d have to use “detect magic” on them to be sure. (The blacksmith suggested that Bern, the magic user at the tower, would do that for us – for a fee. That would come in handy if we didn’t have a druid “on staff.”)

When I got back to the inn, Ezekiel was elbow-deep in copper coins. He told me that Master Osler says a guest calling himself Spunwar claims to be “a sage” and has a habit of approaching new groups that stop at the inn. He’s been here a couple weeks, and hasn’t gone adventuring with anyone, so it’s hard to say what his game is.

By the time we finished counting coins (so many coins! And Ezekiel knocked over a stack once!), Kobort and Lydia were back.

Mikael and Raven arrived a little bit later. Apparently they went to the merchant first, and got a price of 15 gold for each bolt of cloth. Then they went to the weaver in town, who said (as a seller of cloth) it was probably worth 30 to 40 gold (per bolt).

Then they went to the tailer across the street, who said if he were making a custom suit from the fabric, the material would cost 60 gold PER BOLT. In fact, he said that – if he had the cash – he would gladly pay 50 each for them.

Raven’s got a funny snicker.

Anyway, Kobort and Lydia had a less involved story. We were worried at first that we’d have to re-appraise the amethyst, because Kobort wouldn’t tell us how much the money-changer said, but we finally got a value for it and could begin THE MATH.

[long list of figures]

[long list of repeated figures, with a 2 not carried]

[yet another list of figures]

Assuming we liquified all the goods (and converted the copper into gold pieces), each share would be:

2 platinum, 72 gold, 2 electrum, 14 silver

with extra of:

1 platinum, 2 gold, 1 electrum, 5 silver

So…(my hand hurts) we went through our cash on hand and gave Kobort his share (including the amethyst that he seems to like so much), and used the left-overs to host a party dinner (treating people on the team tab seems the simplest way to mop up the drims and drams).

To top it all off, Master Osler came to us and said Fernok of Ferd had checked out…so to thank us for scaring him off, he was putting us all up in rooms for the night.

The guys will share two in a room, and Lydia says she doesn’t mind if Nori stays with her since they’re both girls.

(I hesitate to ask if Nori is house-trained…does she have to go outside to spin webs? I should find my Wild Creatures Manuel somewhere…cramming for tests doesn’t give you as much mental retention as you might hope…)

[sketch of Ezekiel sleeping in a comical pose]


Find the previous entry here.

Read the next entry here.

Find the beginning of the Homlette adventure here.

Subscribe to the mailing list for book updates!

2 thoughts on “Dear Diary…the work of merchants

  1. Pingback: Dear Diary…we will never mention this—ever! - Kimia Wood

  2. Pingback: Dear Diary…the Moat-House - Kimia Wood

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *